Roving Periscope: After death of its 3rd soldier, the US launches fierce strikes on Iran
Virendra Pandit
New Delhi: After the death of its third soldier, the US on Monday launched another round of strikes against Iran as the second phase of their war entered the ninth consecutive day, the media reported.
As the number of confirmed American military deaths in the renewed fighting rose to three and concerns grew over shipping through the Strait of Hormuz, the US Central Command (CenCom) resumed efforts to control the key waterway.
In a statement, it said it started “a new wave of strikes” aimed at “degrading” Iran’s ability to attack commercial vessels in the Strait’s vital shipping lanes.
The CentCom gave no further details. But Iran’s semi-official Tasnim news agency said the US missiles struck several Iranian cities early Monday.
Explosions were heard in major Iranians towns and cities like Tabriz, Chabahar, Konarak, Bandar Mahshahr and Bandar Imam Khomeini, Tasnim said.
In the latest American casualty reported in the war, the US military said on Sunday that a service member was killed on Saturday in northern Iraq, where the US has military bases, during a controlled detonation of what CentCom called unexploded ordnance on a downed Iranian attack drone.
Last weekend, the US military said two of its service personnel died in Jordan and that a third was missing in action. On Sunday, CentCom said that “unidentified remains” had been found at the site of last Friday’s attack and that “an examination process to verify the remains is ongoing.”
The latest casualty brought the total number of US military personnel killed since the war began on February 28, 2026, to 17, with more than 420 others wounded.
For its part, Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) announced a surprise strike against “the enemy’s special operations headquarters in Syria’s Al-Tanf area.”
Iran earlier conducted a drone attack on US military assets and equipment at Kuwait’s Al-Adiri camp and Ali Al Salem Air Base, Iranian state TV reported early on Sunday.Tehran had previously hit both bases as part of its attacks against US assets and allies in the Gulf over the past week.
Kuwait officials said a desalination plant had been attacked for the second day running, causing a fire, in what they called a direct strike on vital civilian infrastructure.
Concerns about the flow of energy supplies through the Strait of Hormuz have persisted since the United States and Iran resumed open hostilities after accusing each other of repeatedly violating a ceasefire deal.
Oil prices jumped 3 per cent on Monday, with Brent crude futures surpassing USD 90 a barrel, the highest level since June 11.
Monday’s attacks came the day after CentCom said its eighth consecutive wave of attacks hit Iranian military coastal surveillance and air defense facilities.
The US and Iran have intensified attacks as an interim ceasefire agreement, or MoU, they signed a month ago has unravelled and a struggle for control of the Strait of Hormuz has deepened, raising the risk of a return to all-out hostilities.
“We hit them very hard again tonight, and we did it in honour of the US service members killed since Friday,” President Donald Trump told reporters after he returned from attending the FIFA World Cup final.
The US Embassy in Bahrain warned that Iran may target unspecified locations in central Manama, that nation’s capital, and urged Americans there to remain vigilant.
The conflict, which began when the US and Israel attacked Iran on February 28, seeking to disable Tehran’s nuclear and missile programs and weaken its regional proxies, has killed thousands of people, mostly in Iran and Lebanon, and led to major energy supply disruptions and fears over global inflation.
